• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.51-62
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• 2022

Objectives Objective of this study is to investigate the role of paraspinal muscles by examining the correlation between slip percentage (SP) of spondylolisthesis and fatty infiltration of lumbar paraspinal muscle. Methods Retrospective analysis was performed on 45 patients diagnosed with spondylolisthesis based on medical records. Using T2-weighted axial magnetic resonance imaging, cross-sectional areas (CSAs) of psoas major (PM), multifidus (MU) and erector spinae (ES) were calculated and divided by CSA of lower level vertebral body (VB). SP was measured using sagittal T2-weighted images. Correlation of SP with muscle relative cross-sectional area (RCSA) and muscle fatty infiltration by Goutallier classification was respectively analyzed using Spearman correlation. Statistic assessment conducted by Wilcoxon signed rank test and paired t-test using program GraphPad prism 5 (GraphPad Software, Inc., San Diego, CA, USA). Results Spondylolisthesis forward slip percentage by Taillard's method was negatively associated with both side MU RCSAs. No significant correlation was found between PM RCSA, ES RCSA and SP. Forward slippage was significantly correlated with fatty infiltration of lumbar paraspinal muscle measured by Goutallier classification. Conclusions This study is to understand the role of paraspinal muscle affecting spinal instability by investigating correlation between statistical deviation of lumbar muscle characters (RCSA, fatty infiltration of lumbar muscle) and SP. We found that spondylolisthesis SP is positively related to fatty infiltration of lumbar paraspinal muscle. and is negatively associated with both side MU RCSAs.